Lizzie Nonsense by Jan Ormerod

"When Lizzie's mama and papa were married, the sun shone on fields of yellow wheat which grew right up to the door of the tiny church. But for as long as Lizzie can remember, she and mama and papa and baby have lived in their little house in the bush, and the church and the neighbours are far away."

Papa needs to take the timber to a faraway town, so mama and Lizzie and baby are left alone for many weeks. As mama completes her chores Lizzie tags along. She sees the world in a different way - using her imagination. The baby in the bath is really floating in the wide blue sea; the flowers from the garden become a bridal bouquet; and for dinner Lizzie declares they will have peaches and cream and sweet little cakes. Of course they are actually having turnips! The church is too far away but on Sunday's they put on their best clothes and walk along the track pretending they are returning from church. Finally papa arrives home:

"And they walk together back to their little house in the bush."

Image source: State Library of Victoria Story Island

Lizzie Nonsense has a special dedication to "my grandmother Beatrice Evelyn Harvey 1883-1972", so we know this book is based on true events. Jan Ormerod, who died in 2013, also wrote The Water Witcher based on the life of her grandfather.

Here is the full Kirkus Star review: When Papa takes the cut sandalwood into town, Lizzie, Mama and the baby are all alone in their little house in the bush. Lizzie is always playing and pretending; Mama calls it Lizzie nonsense, but her imagination helps lighten the daily chores and hard work. While Mama tends the garden, she picks flowers and becomes a bride; as she helps Mama prepare the usual turnips for dinner, they become peaches and cream; as they mend clothes, Lizzie pretends to make a party dress with buttons and bows. Mama even joins the playfulness when they dress in their best on Sunday and walk along the track and back, pretending they’ve been to church. The beautiful painterly, watercolor illustrations are a departure from Ormerod’s earlier cuddly style. The earth-hued wispy and airy paintings affectionately embellish Lizzy’s nonsense, conveying a warmhearted snippet of time when a family bond overcame the hardships of Australian pioneer life to make a home in an untamed land. Based on anecdotes from the author’s own family history.

Lizzie Nonsense was published in 2004 and shortlisted by the CBCA in 2005. In 2006 IBBY Australia selected Lizzie Nonsense as our Honour Book title for illustration. Here is the catalogue annotation:

Lizzie lives with her mama, papa and baby brother on a remote farm in the Australia bush. Papa leaves the family for weeks on end while he delivers wood to the distant town leaving Lizzie, her Mama and baby alone in the bush. Lizzie is a lively girl with a vivid imagination. Her brother in his bath is floating in the ocean, a fallen log is her brave steed and flowers in the garden become a bridal bouquet. Lizzie is such a happy girl. She finds delight in the smallest of things and her buoyant outlook and positivity help her Mama during these difficult days. Even though she dismisses Lizzie’s ideas as nonsense Mama has her own daydreams too. On Sundays they put on their best clothes and pretend they have walked to church. Finally, after all the long weeks, they hear a sound. Is that harness jangling just in the imagination? No it is papa! Lizzie Nonsense is dedicated to the memory of Jan Ormerod’s grandmother and her life in the 1890s. It is a tale told with warmth, tenderness and humour. The images are built up from pencil drawings. Watercolour and ink are used to evoke the light of the Australian bush and the simple candlelight of their home. Several illustrations are presented as an oval similar to a framed picture placed on a dresser or mantle.

Sadly, it is now out of print. I thought of it again when it was mentioned in a recent podcast when the presenter listed books about weddings. I did a blog post about this a few days ago. Today I discovered the 2013 paperback edition of Lizzie Nonsense and it does look like a wedding story even though in my mind this is still a minor aspect of the story. The cover image comes from the title page of the original book. 

I have talked about many books by Jan Ormerod in the past. Click on the label for this post to find more of her books. 

When I first read Lizzie Nonsense I thought of this wonderful Australian poem which I learned by heart for a play called Yarns and Woolley Tales in 1984:

Before the glare o’ dawn I rise

To milk the sleepy cows, an’ shake

The droving dust from tired eyes,

Look round the rabbit traps, then bake

The children’s bread.

There’s hay to stook, an’ beans to hoe,

An’ ferns to cut in the scrub below,

Women must work, when men must go

Shearing from shed to shed.

I patch an’ darn, now evening comes,

An’ tired I am with labour sore,

Tired o’ the bush, the cows, the gums,

Tired, but we must dree for long months more

What no tongue tells.

The moon is lonely in the sky,

Lonely the bush, an’ lonely I

Stare down the track no horse draws nigh,

An’ start . . . at the cattle bells.

River Murray Mary by Colin Thiele illustrated by Robert Ingpen

This is a vintage Australian book first published in 1979 and reprinted in 1990. It was released again in 2002 but that copy is now also out of print. While I don't think it would be any where near as good, the ebook version is still available. 

It seems easy to dismiss old books as having no appeal to "modern" kids but this is such a gripping story of early Australian pioneers and young Mary is a very memorable character. I think this book would be a fabulous family read aloud. Publishers today would probably not produce a picture book like this with 72 pages and full pages of text but this format is very appealing for this long form picture book especially with the beautiful art by Robert Ingpen. In the past there were some terrific long form picture books in Australia such as Rummage by Christobel Mattingley illustrated by Patricia Mullins; Jandy Malone and the Nine O'Clock tiger by Barbara Bolton illustrated by Alan White; and even the famous Storm Boy by Colin Thiele illustrated by Robert Ingpen.

Mary Agnes Baker lives on a farm on the banks of the Murray River in South Australia. Her father was granted this land when he returned from WWI. Mary was born in 1918 and now that she is aged 10 or 11 Australia is entering the years of The Great Depression. Life on the farm is hard with huge tasks like harvesting grapes. They also have to manage the irrigation.

"Mary was never happier than when she was running up and down the rows at irrigation time, the red mud spattered all over her legs or squelching up between her toes like soft brown butter. As soon as the row of fruit trees or vines had been soaked thoroughly her father went back to the main trench, sealed off the gutter that had been flowing and opened up another one at the next row. And so it went on. All through the night he dozed and worked, dozed and worked ..."

"In the winter months there was pruning and ploughing to do and in summer there was picked and dipping and drying. The dipping was the worse part. It had to be done in a tank full of very hot water mixed with caustic soda. ... It was dreadful work in the heat of summer without shelter or shade but it was the only way the sultanas could be made to dry into soft golden fruit for cakes and pudding and buns all over the world."

Early on in the story Mary encounters a tiger snake and as a reader I just knew this snake would be sure to cause havoc later in the story, but before this happens the family and community have to survive a wild hail storm which destroys their crops and then an enormous flood - water coming down the river over many weeks and covering everything close to the river bank and beyond. These scenes are so dramatic - making this story such a powerful page turner.

If you have this book in your school library there are some wonderful passages you could use with a class as examples of very skilled writing:

"A snake was drinking at the riverbank. He lay like a long rope with his head and neck out over the water and the rest of his curving body in the grass on the bank. His scales shone bronze and black in the morning sun as if he had spent the night polishing himself. ... For an instant a little flicker of blue lightning danced along his lips, quicker than the blink of an eye."

"Mary took another step backwards and waited. The river was so calm that the trees along the edge seemed to be standing on a mirror. The sun was warm and soft, and the air was silent.  ... she could have been the only living creature in the world. She and the snake."

"He bought his head round to the bank and his body followed like black glass, like cold molten glass, easily and silently. Such a fluid flowing of flesh and muscles she had never see before. She glimpsed his rippling underbelly as he moved, streaked with red and bands of smoke ... his body poured itself through the grass in a black shining stream, winding and curving by a kind of magic."

I also love the way Mary talks about her dog:

"She had grown up with old Snap, and although he was a big galumphing dog who was forever doing stupid things and then smiling at what he had done, he was such a happy, warm-hearted fellow that he seemed like a brother to everyone."

Sadly, Snap is bitten by that snake and the doctor (who also works as the local vet) is far away but Mary and her father load Snap into their small row boat and rush him to Doc Williams who luckily does have some anti-venene. It is a tense night as Mary watches over her old dog desperate to see him survive. 

If you have a class studying a topic such as "life in the olden days" read the scene on page 32 when Mary's mother sets up her petrol iron!

"Mary was frightened of the iron and she hated using it herself. First the little tank at the back had to be filled with petrol, then the jet had to be ricked, and finally the iron had to be primed. When everything was ready her mother struck a match and there was a moment or two of anguish when flames were likely to stutter all over the place ... but at last the flames in the hollow between the top of the iron and the heavy sole below sank away and the jet settled down to a steady hiss like a vent of steam that had caught a cold."

Colin Thiele is a famous Australian author of books such as Storm Boy; Sun on the Stubble; Blue Fin; and Pannikin and Pinta. 

Robert Ingpen won the IBBY Hans Christian Andersen award in 1986. 

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The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel

All aboard for an exciting tale of steam-powered automatons, a bloodthirsty sasquatch, colorful circuses, 

and magical paintings.  School Library Journal

Do you love a fast paced adventure?  Do you enjoy train travel?  Would you like to visit the circus? Do you wonder about creatures like the Sasquatch?  Do you enjoy books where you cheer the hero and hiss the villain?  If you answered yes to any of these questions then The Boundless is absolutely the right book for you.

The year is 1887 and the Boundless, the most amazing train in the world, the longest train in the world with 987 carriages holding 6,495 passengers, measuring seven miles is making a maiden voyage from Halifax in Eastern Canada right across to Victoria in the west.  This exciting and unique train becomes one of the characters in this story of murder, circus performers and the eternal quests for gold and immortality.  In each chapter we read about the incredible and splendid facilities provided on the train.  I don't want to spoil things too much for you because the train is filled with wonders including a billiards room and an amazing post office but here are a few descriptions :

"before him is a luxurious parlor with armchairs and sofas and side tables and electric lamps and fresh flowers in vases."

"Entering the Vancouver car, he finds himself in a cozy library, with long reading tables and green shaded lamps and floor-to-ceiling walnut bookshelves between the windows."

"Our rolling city comprises first class, second class, third class, colonist class, and behind these several miles of freight cars ... (and) a string of eighty carriages belonging to the world-renowned Zirkus Dante."

In chapter one we learn that Will's dad has been working on the railway.  Will is invited to visit his father up on the line but on the way the train is attacked by a sasquatch. The owner of the line, Mr Van Horne, has organised a ceremony featuring the installation of the last rail spike.  To mark the occasion this spike is gold and encrusted with diamonds.  Will is given the honor of hammering in the spike but the celebratory gun fire sets of a huge avalanche.  Will, his dad, Mr Van Horne and Brogan are among the survivors as the snow engulfs the scene.  Three years later the train is now ready to set off but Brogan still has his sights set on that spike.  He will stop at nothing, including murder, to win this prize.  Also seeking a prize is Mr Dorian the circus manager.  He wants a painting owned by Van Horne but it seems the owner will not part with this 'treasure'.  Sadly now Van Horne is dead but he riding the train in a special carriage which contains his coffin.

The train is speeding through the countryside and so is Will because Brogan wants the key to Van Horne's coffin rail car and Will is now holding it after the guard from the funeral car is killed.  Helping him with all of this Will has a wonderful friend - circus performer Maren.  Her skill with locks, her tightrope expertise and her courage all help Will escape certain death more than once.

I have been a fan of Canadian author Kenneth Oppel for many years.  I highly recommend you look for the trilogy which begins with Airborn and the quartet which begins with Silverwing.

You can hear part of Chapter Two here.  This book would make a splendid class read-aloud for a senior Primary group and Kenneth Oppel has a set of teaching notes to get you started.  If I have not convinced you to read The Boundless here is an enthusiastic review with more plot details and some ideas to use for a book talk.  If you enjoy train stories you could also look for On the Blue Comet by Rosemary Wells.  I was excited to see my fellow blogger Mr K also loved this book - he said This is one of my favorite books of the year, and an excellent adventure story for boys and girls alike.  It is the best book Mr. Oppel has written (and he's written some real winners), and a book I'll recommend to everyone.


Canadian railway history, fantasy, a flutter of romance—and a thoughtful examination of social injustice—collide in this entertaining swashbuckler ... Kirkus


Kenneth Oppel weaves history with alternative technology and a real landscape with creatures from native folklore: sasquatches roam the forested mountains, wendigos haunt the northern wastes and a muskeg hag lures unsuspecting travelers into her bog. The fully-realized setting outside the train is detailed and realistic, with avalanches and forested mountainsides galore, but the train is the most compelling element of the setting. KidsReads